Thread: Tony Stewart Sprint Car Accident kills fellow driver.

First, as many other have said, my prayers go out to both Kevin's family, friends, and Tony.

I finally watch the video. I did not want to be that guy who rubber necks at an accident instead of watching for emergency workers and the road. But there is so much discussing going on, I felt like to be informed you have to see it. My first reaction is to feel bad for all who have been affected. I raced open wheel at the local dirt track in the late 80's. My class was called modifieds, we were a 100 inch, wingless, open wheel.

As far as the racing accident/spin, I don't see any way Tony can be blamed for that. Although he was drifting up (somewhat a side job), his rear wheel was past Kevin cockpit. Only those two men will ever know what they were thinking, I suspect Kevin was trying to save momentum and was sliding up also. I could not tell if Kevin hit some marbles or just over drove corner, either way when the rear wiggled just a bit, it did not have to move far to catch the fence. Again I don't know what Kevin was thinking, but I have been in exactly the same spot. I did not let off to keep the car in my current grove, which cause me to drift up. The track at OKC was 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile that shared the front straight. The corners and back stretch did not have any guard rails, but the back straight was elevated. So instead of hitting a guardrail, my rear wheel drop off the berm, spinning, then the belly pan dug in causing me to flip. I sensed the edge and if I knew what was going to happen I would have let up, but I thought I could squeeze through. What happen between Kevin and Tony up to this point is just racing. I always felt once you could no longer see the next guy's front tire, you have the right of way. As much as there is such a thing in racing.


The foxsports.com artical that metinon Kevin's girlfriend posts.
http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/dead-driver-kevin-ward-girlfriend-grieves-aunt-calls-out-tony-stewart-on-facebook-081314

Ignoring the junk, and paying attention to two witnesses who are also racers, and what they said. I think their analyses represent two to the more likely scenarios. The difference between them, one thinks Tony meant to "Buzz" Kevin, the other does not. IF one of these is true and that is IF, then either one Tony did not try to hit Kevin. There is no way I will ever buy that. I wonder if it was a bad game of chicken that went horrible wrong.

We come back to Kevin getting out of the car. Not only should a racer never get out of his car, he should not unhook any belts. I have seen many a time someone miss a yellow flag and slam into a wreck/stalled car.

The next week after flipping the car in OKC (from above), we raced in a special event in Amarillo Tx. Same thing happened only this time instead of flipping off the track, I was crosswise in the middle of turn 4 upside down. I was not about to release any belts, I could still hear cars buzzing by, and this was after a red flag. As I was sitting there, upside down, for some reason my check valves for the fuel tank vents did not catch and then I felt alcohol running down my back. At that point I felt safer to get out than to be in the car. That is why we need to be careful about any knee jerk rules about getting out of the car. The best suggestion I have seen so far is: If a driver gets out of the car before the safety crew arrives, the red is displayed immediately. The driver may then face suspension and/or fines.

Again, just bad deal and tragedy.

I know its been said already but we all know that if it would have been some Joe Shmoe driver no one would have even batted an eye at this, it would have been chocked up as an accident and no one outside of where this happened would have even known about it.

Yup he was a big name in The World Of Outlawas. And dirt track racing and Nascar are 2 completely different animals btw. They each require a different level of driving.

Originally Posted by 98GrandPrixIraqVet

However i dont like the idea of nascar sprint cup drivers moving down classes to wax the field just like i dont like sprint cup guys racing nationwide ect.......

Tony races sprint cars, week after week, along with nascar because he loves the sport! Not to "wax the field" He spends all of his time around some form of racing using his own money.

I don't believe local guy looks at it as some big dog coming in to wax me.

Let me set the stage for my reasoning...
Back in the day when USAC sanction most of the open wheel races then had several class two of them were (1)Silver Crown and (2)Sprint Cars. In fact during that time they actually sanction the Indy 500. There were a lot of Indy 500 drivers running Silver Crown cars. Silver Crown cars were 96" wheelbase, and I can't remember the engine size (327 plus bored?). Any way as I mention our track had a 100 inch wheelbase 360 CUI. The reason why was to keep the "professional" from coming in and taking all the loot. Both cars had to have clutches, the Silver Crown (Champ Dirt) could use external starters. The 100" had to self start which leads to a funny story later. So in 80's there was a sanctioning body called NCRA, they sanctioned races at local tracks through KS, MS, OK, and TX. Once a year there was a race billed as "NCRA" vs "USAC". USAC had the advantage in wheelbase, but NCRA had the engine size. The cars were comparatively close. The first race, a NCRA guy won it. Talk about local guy's being excited and ticked off professionals.

Anyway I say all that for this point, I think these local guy's look forward to racing the Tony's (professional). They are not going to impact the local points that much with just one race and to say I beat Tony S.

Oh, the funny part about being self starting. As I said, Silver Crown had external starters like Indy car, only they went in from the front instead of the rear. When a Silver Crown stalled on the track it had to be pushed started like sprint cars. I wish I could have seen the USAC guy's face when a NCRA car spun, stalled, self started, and then drove off back into the race. He thought there was going to be a yellow and let off, but since the car was out of the way quickly, there was no yellow.

Originally Posted by 98GrandPrixIraqVet

Stewart broke his leg in a sprint car last year this is where he started kind of like home........

However i dont like the idea of nascar sprint cup drivers moving down classes to wax the field just like i dont like sprint cup guys racing nationwide ect.......

if there were no cup drivers in nationwide there would be no ticket sales, nascar has said this themselves.

Originally Posted by 98GrandPrixIraqVet

Edit you cant take a pro nfl player and let them play college or highschool football so thats kind of how i view drivers moving down classes. No matter if its sprint cup nascar to nationwide nascar or sprint cup nascar to world of outlaws ect.....

difference is armature sport or paid......nfl is paid, so they can no longer compete in the Olympics or collage ball.

race car drivers get paid. hes not in the 150 enduro ( stock beat up cars) at orange county fair grounds in NY.

And that's exactly it. Stewart never touched the kid's car. He held his line going into the turn, the kid tried to go too high and wrecked himself. His skill level was way too low to be out there, and his brain level was even lower to get out of his car when cars were still going around the track.

found this for you guys



http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com...artner=ya5nbcs

how can they prove he was high at the time? it's nearly impossible.

maybe he had it in his system, but that doesn't at all mean he was high out on the track.

Yeah, considering that stuff just doesn't exit your system overnight, lolllll...people.